Refrigerating mechanism



April 27, 1937. J. R. REPLOGLE REFRIGERATING macmmxsm Filed Feb. 23, 1935 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR J'pi iz 75 )7epl0yle.

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April 27, 1937.

J. R. REPLOGLE REFRIGERATING MECHANISM.

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TTORNEY April 27, 1937. J. R. REPLOGLE v REFRIGERATING MECHANISM Filed Feb. 23, 1935 4 Sheets-Sheet 3 INVENTOR mmm 1%. Z PIA/A H... 2 MM J April 27,- 1937. J. R.- REPLOGLE REFRIGERATING mscrmmsu Filed Feb. 25, 1933- 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 MW w n 5 mu haw =2 L km mm Lg INVENTOR Jab) 75. fie/Zajle.

Patented Apr. 27, 1937 UNITED STATES REFRIGERATING MECHANISM John R. Replogle, Detroit, Mich., assignor, by mesne assignments, to Copeland Refrigeration Corporation, Mount Clemens, Mich, a corporation of Michigan Application February 23, 1933, Serial No. 658,219

2 Claims.

The invention relates to refrigerating mecha nisms and in certain respects is similar to that embodied in mycopending application for patent,

Serial No. 597,952, filed March 10, 1932. Thisv last-mentioned application for patent relates particularly to a refrigerator mechanism having a refrigerator unit which is removable rearwardly from the rear side of the refrigerator cabinet.

One object of the present invention is to provide a refrigerator having multiple, standardized refrigerator units, in which either unit may be readily removed independently of another unit.

Another object of the invention is to provide a multiple unit of the last-mentioned character wherein the units are governed in operation, by

a common temperature control.

Another object of the invention is to provide a refrigerator mechanism of the multiple unit type mentioned above, wherein the units are substantially identical and independently removable from the refrigerator, so that standard and smaller units may be manufactured either for use singly in a smaller refrigerator, or in multiple for the larger refrigerator, thereby avoiding the usual practice of building units of different sizes to be used in refrigerators of diflerent sizes.

Another object of the invention is to provide a multiple unit refrigerator mechanism having a common temperature control, wherein one unit so may be removed readily without interfering with the operative arrangement of the other or the temperature control thereof, so that it is even possible to remove one unit while allowing the other unit to continue its refrigerating operation.

Another object of the invention is to provide improved light controlling means for lighting the interior of the refrigerator when the door is opened to gain access thereto.

Other objects of the invention will become apparent from the following description relating to a particular embodiment of the invention illustrated, and from the claims hereinafter set forth.

For a better understanding of such particular embodiment of the invention, reference may be had to the accompanying drawings forming a part of the specification, wherein:

Figure 1 is a horizontal, cross-sectional view of a refrigerator constructed according to one form of the invention, illustrating the multiple refrigerator units in plan.

Fig. 2 is a cross-sectional view on a larger scale, taken substantially along the line 2-2 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a rear, elevational view of the upper part of the refrigerator, with -ertain parts shown in section for the purposes of more clearly illustrating certain details of construction.

Fig. 4 is a cross-sectional view on a larger scale taken substantially along the line 4-4 of Fig. 3.

Fig. 5 is a cross-sectional view on a larger scale, taken substantially along the line 5-5 of Fig. 4 and illustrating one of the door operated switches for controlling the light within the refrigerator.

Fig. 6 is a cross-sectional view taken substantially along the line 6-6 of Fig. 5.

Fig. 7 is a diagrammatic illustration of the electrical circuits employed in operating and controlling the multiple refrigerator units and the light within the refrigerator..

Referring to Figs. 1 and 2, the refrigerator cabinet includes heat insulating side walls It! and H, and a rear heat insulating wall I2 which terminates considerably below the upper edges of the side walls. Such walls are joined at their lower extremities to a bottom insulating wall of the cabinet (not shown). The front wall of the refrigerator includes the corner posts I3 and M, the central post IS, the upper cross member l6 extending between the posts, and a lower wall portion (not shown), which are arranged to pro vide a pair of door openings for doors I! and i8 hingedly connected respectively, to the corner posts. Suitable latches are used for holding the free edge portions of the doors against the central post, although these have not been illustrated. t

The upper edge portion of the rear wall 12 is secured to a horizontal and narrow wall 20 extending between the side walls It) andii, although directly above the wall 20, the side walls are eliminated. The inner edge portion of said horizontal wall, as best shown by Fig. 1, supports oppositely disposed vertical wall segments 2! and 22, and a central post 23 spaced from the adjacent edges of the vertical segments to provide spaced door openings 24 and 25. Below and above such openings, as best shown'- by Fig. 2, cross members 26 and 21 extend between the side walls Ill and I l and are connected to the vertical segments 2| and 22 and the central post 23, thus providing a vertical wall between the side walls It) and II, extending upwardly from the inner edge of the horizontal wall portion 20, and which is closed except for the door openings 2! and 25 previously mentioned. Between the front cross member l6 and the rear cross member 21, a

horizontal upper wall 28 is provided which exmetal lining 29, and as shown by Figs. 1 and 2, portions 30 of the lining extend rearwardly of the side walls Ill and H and along the horizontal wall 20. Interior surfaces of the cabinet may be covered with porcelain coating metal lining 3| or the like.

The cabinet may be provided with a cover 32 having downwardly curved edges 33 covering the upper corner edges of the cabinet and lining 29, and such cover is mounted on member 34 by means of apertured spacers 35 maintaining the cover spaced from the frame and upper surface of the cabinet proper. From this description, it is apparent that between the wall 20 and cover 32 and lining portions 30, and rearwardly of door openings 24 and 25, a compartment indicated at 36 is provided. This compartment is adapted to receive parts of refrigerating units as will now be described.

The refrigerator mechanism comprises, in the construction illustrated, two refrigerator units indicated at 4B and 4H and each unit includes a unitary motor and compressor 42, an evaporator coil 43 connected to the discharge side of a condenser through an expansion valve 35, and a fan 46 for directing air over and through the coils of the condenser. Each refrigerator unit is associated with a door. 47 adapted to close either of the openings 24 and 25, and this door, as shown best by Fig. 2, comprises an outer frame 48 having a central wall portion 49 composed of heat insulating material. Each condenser unit, that is the motor, compressor and condenser, is mount ed on angle irons 50 having vertical portions secured to the rear side of Walls 2t, 22 and 23 by means of bolts 52, horizonal portions 53 for supporting the condenser unit, and short legs 5 adapted to slidably rest on the horizontal wall portion 20 of the cabinet. Preferably, such wall portion will be provided with a metal base or with metal guides 55 to facilitate sliding movement of the door and legs 56 of the angle irons, forwardly and rearwardly during insertion and removal of the refrigerator unit. The legs 5t of the angle irons are connected to lower portions of the walls 2 i, 22 and 23 by means of long bolts 5'5.

At the opposite or front side of the door, a bracket frame 60 is provided which has edge flanges 61 projecting within the frame 48 and which are secured thereto by screws 62. Frontwardly of this bracket frame, a metal lining 63 similar to the lining 3| previously mentioned, is provided and to such lining and the bracket frame, evaporator supporting devices 6 1 and B5 are secured by means of bolts 66 and each of such devices terminates in a lip 5'! projecting within an evaporator shell 68. Such lips may be secured to the inner surface of the shell in any suitable manner such as by welding. The coil of the evaporator is wound helically around this shell and within the latter, ice freezing trays 10 may be removably supported as will be readily understood.

For sealing the door in place, as shown by Fig. 2, the marginal edge of the cover plate 63 defines a tapered flange i2 which wedgingly fits a rubber or other suitable sealing ring 13 having a tapered inner surface engaging the flange. The frame 58 also is notched as indicated at M to abut the rearward face of such sealing ring. Upper and lower portions of the sealing ring are held in place by flanged portions E5 of the lining 3i around the opening, but along the vertical edges of the opening as shown by Fig. 1, the marginal edges of the lining are bent rearwardly and are tapered as indicated at H and the shape of the vertical portions of the sealing ring are such as to cooperate with the flange 12 and such tapered portion ll. The interior surface of the post 23 is covered by a vertical lining 18 having its opposite side edges flanged also, as indicated at 11, to sup-. port the sealing ring along the edges of the post.

As also shown by Fig. l, opposite vertical edges of each door are connected to vertical legs of angle irons 50 and such irons which support the condenser units in conjunction with wall 20, are supported on the walls 2i, 22 and 23 by bolts 52 and 51. It should now be appreciated that by removing the bolts 52 and 57, either refrigerator unit and the door with which it is associated, may bodily be moved rearwardly and-withdrawn from the refrigerator. In this connection it will be noted, as shown by Fig. 1, that both units are similarly arranged so that either unit might be substituted for the other without requiring any undesirable change in position or arrangement of any part of either unit. This permits manufacturing standard refrigerator units and doors such as described, and assembling them easily in a multiple system. Furthermore, it enables shipping a standard unit for replacing a unit in use without involving any problems of size, fit or arrangement.

The conduits extending from the discharge and intake side of the condenser to the evaporator,

, preferably are passed through an opening 82 in the door and any space between or around the conduits may be filled with a suitable packing such as rubber to seal the opening. The opening in one door,'as shown in connection with the left refrigerator unit, has an electrical cable extending through it for connection with a temperature control which will be described later.

As described previously, the refrigerator units are supported by the walls 2|, 22 and 23 and by the horizontal wall 20 and the cover 32 extends rearwardly thereover. The lining 29 for the cabinet also has portions 30 extending rearwardly along the side thereof, as shown by Fig. 1, to a point in vertical alignment with the rear surface of the rear wall l2. This lining at its rear edges is turned inwardly as indicated at 86 in Fig. 1,

and at its upper edge is provided with a portion 85 extending across the upper and rear portion of the refrigerator. As best shown by Fig. 3, a plate 86 extends vertically between the wall l2 and the portion 85 of the lining, and is secured theretobymeans of screws 81. This plate ,extends entirely to the right side of the refrigerator as seen from the rear, and there is provided with louvres B8 to permit the escape of air, and its inner edge terminates adjacent the fan of the right hand unit. At the opposite side of the cabinet, another plate 89 is secured similarly to plate 86, and is provided with louvre discharge openings 96, and the inner edge of this plate terminates adjacent the fan of the left hand unit. Thus between the adjacent edges of the plate, a large opening is provided for the intake 0 air.

While the two refrigerator units have been described as identical, it is preferred to use fans which respectively have their blades angled differently so that, as seen by Fig. 1, the fans for the right hand unit draws air into the central opening and causes it to pass over the condenser unit and then through the louvre openings 88, and that the fan for the left hand unit causes air to be drawn into the central opening and then passed to the left over the left condenser unit and to be. discharged through the louvres 90. This same result of course might be secured by having the motors reversible and operating one motor in one direction and the other motor in the opposite direction. The arrangement insures substantially equal cooling of the condenser units and this is of importance in the operation of both units simultaneously. Both fans could be alike and operated in the same direction if desired, but this is less preferable because the air then would flow in the same direction with respect to both units and warm air would be drawn from one unit over the other.

For controlling the operation of the units bya common control, attention is directed particularly to Fig. "I. In this figure the lead-in termi-.

nals of the electrical circuit are indicated at 92 and 93 and they lead into a junction box 94 having sockets for receiving a pair of plugs 95 and 98. One plug is in the circuit for one of the refrigerator units and the other plug is in the circuit for the other refrigerator unit so that either unit may be plugged in separately. In the left hand unit, a control circuit 91 leads from the motor to a control 98 and such control circuit has a socket 99 for receiving a' plug I00 in a control circuit for the other unit. By inserting the plug I00 in the socket 99, it is apparent that both motor circuits are subject to tle control The control box 98, as best shown by Figs. 1 and 2, is only associated with the left hand evaporator and includes a tube I02 connected to a bulb I03 which is located and secured in position between two convolutions of the evaporator coil. This bulb is filled with a itable liquid. subject to contraction and expansion so that the temperature at the point of location of the bulb will cause operation of the electrical switch in the control 98 to start and stop the refrigerator units. It may be stated in this connection that the evaporator coil from the expansion valve is wound helically from the inner end of and about the shell to the front end thereof and then is reversed and wound helically between the convolutions already wound, to the inner end of the shell. This arrangement more or less averages the effective temperature of the evaporator coil throughout its length. The bulb. I03 preferably is located between two convolutions of the evaporator coil adjacentthe front end thereof, as ordinarily this will be the warmest end owing to the proximity of the cabinet doors I! and I8. The

control 98 is mounted on a plate I05 secured to the front end of the shell 68 and a manually operable control arm I06 is provided on the plate for varying operation of the control. It should be evident that the control including the bulb I03 and tube I02 may readily be associated with either evaporator.

In a refrigerator of this character it is preferred to use a light I01 behind the central post I5 and to provide an arrangement by means of which this light will be turned on when either of the doors is opened and turned oif when both of the doors are closed. For efiecting this result, and as seen by Fig. 7, the light circuit extends from the junction box 94 and two switches I08 and I09 are provided either of which when closed will cause the light to turn on but when both switches are in their open position, the light will be off. Such switches are controlled respectively by the two doors and are located on the inside faces of the corner posts I3 and I4 respectively, as shown best by Fig. 1. These switches are identical and one of them is shown in detail in Figs. 5 and 6. d V

Referring to these figures, the switch includes a bifurcated plate member II5 having legs H6 and III securing a series of insulating plates II8 together. The end insulating plates are substantially co-extensive with the legs H8 and III whereas the intermediate plates provide a pocket II9 which has an arena e base. The central plate indicated I20 provides a rib extending along the base of the socket. At one end of the base, metal terminals I2I and I22 are secured and these in turn are connected to the lighting circuit. For bridging these terminals so as to cause turning on of the light, a roller I23 is provided having a central groove receiving the rib on the insulating plate I20 so that the roller is maintained in an operative position while moving along the curved base. end of the base, the terminals will be bridged and the light will be turned on but when the roller is at the other end of the base, the terminals will be separated electrically and the light will be turned off. For moving the roller, a member I24 is provided, composed of insulating material, and this member has a groove I25 adapted to receive the central and smaller portion of the roller. The member' I24 has a portion I28 projecting through a metal disc I21 and, as best shown by Fig. 6, such disc has legs I28 and I29 extending in parallel'but spaced relation. Thefree ends of such legs project througha metal disc I30 which, as best shown by Fig. 5, has an arcuate socket I3I, and between the discs I21 and I30, a tensioned spring I32 is provided. For holding the disc I30 in place but slidably on the legs, the free ends of the latter are flared outwardly as indicated at I33.

The socket I3I is adapted to receive a cylindrical portion I35 on one arm of a bell crank I36 which is pivoted at its center on a pin I31 projecting through openings in opposite side walls of a tubular element I39 secured to the member I I5. The opposite leg of the bell crank I36 terminates in a cylindrical portion I39 which projects into an opening I40 in the side wall of a sleeve I4I slidably mounted in the element I38. It will be apparent if the sleeve MI is moved into the element I38. that the pin I3'I will remain stationary When the roller is at one but that the side wall of the sleeve will turn the bell crank and upon turning of the latter, the cylindrical portion I35 finally will become aligned with the axis of the roller I23 and the pin. During such movement, the spring I32 is further compressed and as soon as the dead center position is reached and slightly passed, the spring will act to move the roller to the opposite end of the base of the groove, thus separating the electrical terminals and turning off the light.

3 The sleeve I is centrally apertured and slidably receives an element I43 having a slot I44 in its inner face for receivingthe central portion of the bell crank and a socket I45 in its outer face for receiving one end of a helical spring I48. The opposite end of the spring seats in a socket I 41 of a. button I48 slidably mounted in a larger opening I49 in the sleeve and which is prevented from movement out of the sleeve by an annular flanged element I50 secured around the outer end of the sleeve. A larger and more rigid spring I5I is disposed in the larger portion of the opening in the sleeve and abuts a shoulder therein at its inner end and the button I48 at its outer end.

When the button I48 is pushed inwardly it causes movement of the sleeve through the stronger spring [5| and movement of the roller from across the electrical terminals to the opposite end of the base in the groove. This action of the roller of course is of snap action character as will be readily appreciated so as to avoid arcing of electrical current as much as possible. During such movement of the button, the spring I46 of course is compressed as the inner member M3 does not move and this compression of the spring serves to return the parts to their original positions. The spring IN is particularly useful in that it permits a further movement of the button inwardly after the switch is thrown to its disconnecting position without interfering with the arrangement or operation of the switch parts as the sleeve Ml then can remain stationary while the resiliency of spring 15E permits further movement of the button inwardly. Thus, when one of the refrigerator doors is closed and it engages the button l48, it will cause the switch to operate but in the event an extra movement of the door is necessary before it reaches its finally closed position, the button M8 may move relative to the sleeve Hi. This construction, therefore, compensates for variations in the fitting of doors while at the same time insures operation of the switch.

The tubular element I38 is externally threaded and locking nuts I53 and I56 threaded thereon are adapted to cooperate with opposite sides of a metal lining I55 on the door opening face to hold the switch in position. It is evident that the switch may be adjustably positioned by varying the positions of the nuts. 7

From the foregoing description it will be apparent that a multiple unit refrigerator has been provided wherein each unit is substantially identical to the other so that replacement of one unit by another unit can easily and readily be made. It is furthermore apparent that the units are separately removable through the rear wall of the refrigerator and that each is unitarily associated with a removable door closing an opening in the rear wall. Thus, each unit may be uni-- tarily assembled with a door and such assembly considered as an article of manufacture to be inserted in refrigerator cabinets simply by moving it into proper position and fastening the door in place. This permits standardizing on a single assembly which may be used for the small refrigerator or in multiple such as illustrated and described for the larger sizes of refrigerators. The cost of manufacturing, replacement of parts, and

Y in general the cost of maintenance of the refrigerator is reduced considerably by standardizing in this manner. Moreover, the invention provides improvements in air circulating systems for conducting the heat away from the refrigerator unit so that the unit will operate efficiently. Additionally, the invention provides improvements in lighting of the interior of the refrigerator when either of the doors is opened and an improved switch which increases the efficiency of'operation of the door operated control. In general, the invention provides an improvement characterized by increased efliciency in production, use, and maintenance of refrigerator mechanisms as well as an improvement in the general arrangement of the cabinet and refrigerator units.

Although only one form of the invention has been illustrated and described in detail, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications may be made without departing from the scope of the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A refrigerator including a cabinet having a cooling chamber; a compartment, and a plurality of spaced condenser units each occupying a predetermined portion of said compartment; means for admitting air into said compartment at a point between certain of the units therein; and means cooperating with said means for dividing the indrawn air into separate streams, one for each unit, and directing each stream across its unit only and then out of the respective portion of the compartment.

2. A refrigerator including a cabinet having a cooling chamber; a compartment having a wall defining an air intake passage intermediate its ends and a pair of outlet passages adjacent the respective ends; a plurality of spaced condenser units, each occupying a portion of said compartment between said intake passage and the associated one of said outlet passages; and means lo-, cated within said compartment for drawing air into said compartment through said inlet passage, dividing the indrawn air into separate streams, one for each unit, and directing each stream across its unit only and then out of the compartment through the outlet passage associated with each unit.

JOHN R. REPLOGLE. 

